@Mylovanov: Anne Applebaum for The Atlanti...

Anne Applebaum for The Atlantic: Some in Ukraine and Europe think Trump quietly helped the probe to weaken Zelenskyy.

That’s implausible: Trump shut USAID, ended anti-graft cooperation, while Kushner and Witkoff turn US state tools toward private deals. 1/

Oleksandr Abakumov, senior detective in NABU, says corruption, not transparency, kills Ukraine. “This is the way we lose — during the war, during negotiations, during rebuilding.”

2/

Applebaum contrasts Ukraine’s accountability with Russia’s terror.

Navalny exposed Putin’s Palace, Putin jailed him, kept the palace and buried every investigator. Anyone who investigates the Kremlin ends up dead or in a cell.

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She contrasts Ukraine’s openness with Trump’s circle. Witkoff and Kushner met Kirill Dmitriev in Miami to discuss Ukraine and future U.S.–Russia business deals.

Russian elites now dangle multibillion-dollar rare-earth and energy deals to carve Europe apart.

4/

Applebaum: This isn’t a kickback scandal. It’s a new form of American corruption — private businessmen using U.S. foreign policy to help friends and partners, while weakening U.S. allies and America’s reputation.

A conflict of interest on a historic scale.

5/

Applebaum: Ukraine’s state is investigating itself — its cabinet, its advisers, even its president’s inner circle.

In Trump’s Washington, it is impossible to imagine internal accountability. In Russia, investigators go to jail.

6X

Source: theatlantic.com/international/…